City of Ukiah details where its sales taxes go

Ukiah Finance Director Gordon Elton Wednesday gave the first of what is expected to be a series of presentations designed to reveal where the city's money comes from and where it goes.

Called Financial Facts Segments, the presentation given to the Ukiah City Council was described as a discussion about "Where does the money come from and where does it go?"

"The reason this is on our agenda tonight is we have had some light agendas lately, and we thought we would take the opportunity to present some financial facts," City Manager Jane Chambers said, adding that she gleaned from discussions "both inside and outside the agency (that) it's just hard to understand our finances."

According to the handout provided by Elton, half of the city's revenue comes from Sales Tax and Triple Flip; 12 percent from franchise fees; 11 percent from charges for services, fees, licenses and rents; 10 percent from property tax; 9 percent from Intergovernmental and 8 percent from other taxes.

Elton then showed a breakdown of the state's 7.5 percent sales tax, which he said was from the state of California's website, which revealed that only 75 cents of every $7.50 goes to the city, with 25 cents going to the county.

Two local taxes add to the state base for a total of 8.125 percent: Measure S is .5 percent, and .125 percent is for the library system.

For every dollar of sales tax earned in the city limits, 52 cents goes to the state, 24 cents goes to the county, 15 cents goes to the city, six cents goes to the County Local Public Safety Fund and three cents goes to Education Protection.

The city spends the majority of its 15 cents, nine cents, on the General Fund, and six cents on Public Safety, or Measure S.

The county spends its 30 cents on Health and Social Services, Local Revenue Fund 2011 ? Realignment, Local Criminal Justice, county transportation and the library system.

Mendocino County Supervisor John McCowen said he wanted to underscore that "connected to each dollar of revenue that comes in to the county, there is a mandate that exceeds the amount of money the county receives."